The present invention is directed to methods of determining values of physical or chemical properties of polymers. Traditionally, in order to determine a value of a specific physical or chemical property, a certain quantity of the particular polymer resin was needed to fabricate an article or a test specimen, and then the resulting article or test specimen was subsequently tested via the prescribed analytical test procedure to determine the value of the physical or chemical property. This procedure is cumbersome not only due to the time required for fabricating the article or test specimen, but also the time required to perform the respective analytical test procedure. Further, the traditional method, depending upon the particular test, could require large amounts of polymer, often more than could be produced in small-scale research laboratory or pilot plant apparatus.
Hence, there exists a need for a method of determining a value of a desired chemical or physical property of a test sample that requires only a small amount of polymer for analysis. Further, this method should provide for the value of the physical or chemical property of the test sample to be determined without fabricating an article or a test specimen. Still further, this method should allow determination of the value of the physical or chemical property of the test sample without performing the analytical test for the physical or chemical property.
In another aspect, there is a need for a method of rapidly determining a value of a desired chemical or physical property of a test sample. It is beneficial to determine the value of the chemical or physical property without having to invest the time and expense needed to fabricate articles or test specimens for subsequent analysis, nor to invest the time and expense needed to perform the analytical test procedure, which dependent upon the specific test, could take days or weeks to determine the value of the respective property. The cycle time of resin design and product development to achieve a desired physical or chemical property attribute could be greatly reduced with a method that provided rapid feedback using only a small quantity of a polymer test sample. Accordingly, the methods of the present invention are directed above.